BRITISH COLUMBIA

The Communist Party last week
called on the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunica-
tions Commission to cancel its up-
coming hearings on a rate increase
for B.C. Telephone pending the
outcome of newly-announced
CRTC hearings called to determine
the cost of a telephone call.

CP provincial leader Maurice
Rush wrote CRTC secretary-
general J.C. Patenaude Jan. 13 to
press for the cancellation of the
hearings, citing a Jan. 11 news
stotfy which reported that the
CRTC is to open hearings May 18

to determine the cost of making a
phone call.

The article quoted CRTC
spokesman Gregory van
Koughnatt as stating fhat once the
commission comes up with a
costing formula, it may ‘‘end up
with a full restructuring of basic
telephone rates.”

“Tn view of that, the Communist
Party strongly urges that the up-
coming hearing .. . into an ap-
plication by B.C. Telephone Com-
pany for substantial rate increases
be cancelled,’’ Rush said.

The hearings into B.C. Tel ap-
plication are set to open Feb. 16
with the U.S.-owned telephone
company seeking further increases
of 28 and 37 percent on top of the
13 percent interim increase granted
earlier by the CRTC without a
hearing. That increase went on tele-
phone users’ bills this month.

The CP brief to the Commission
noted that the CRTC’s credibility
had been thrown into question by
its ‘“‘rubber-stamping’”’ of B.C.
Tel’s application for an interim in-
crease without a public hearing —
especially since the CRTC has yet

Cancellation of B.C. Tel rate hearing urged

to determine the basic cost of a
telephone call.

And the CRTC may again rub-
ber stamp the B.C. Tel aplication if
the February hearings go ahead,
Rush warned. ‘‘We intend
therefore to take demonstrative ac-
tion and to do everything possible
to expose the ripoff,”’ he said.

As in the past hearings, there is
expected to be wide opposition to
any rate increase, with unions, con-
sumer groups and civic bodies in-
cluding the city of Vancouver

scheduled to appear either at thi
formal hearings or at regional heal
ings. ‘|
The city of Vancouver called?
meeting this week of various group
which have endorsed the city’s sub
mission to the CRTC opposing tit
increase. The groups include tht
Vancouver and District Labd
Council, the B.C. branch of tit
Consumers Association @
Canada, Vancouver Status 0 .
Women, Comunist Party, Cound
of Senior Citizens’ Organizatiow
and Consumers _ Against Risifi}

of world

An international boycott has
been organized against the giant
Swiss multinational Nestle’s. It
is charged with being responsi-
ble for the fact that millions of
babies in developing countries
are suffering from malnutrition
and that each year many are dy-
ing from what is now called
“baby bottle disease.””

Nestle’s has been aggressively
promoting infant formulas in
developing countries for years,
at great profit to itself. Many
families in these countries have
been convinced by. Nestle’s
advertising propaganda that
bottle-feeding is the modern
way to feed their babies and is as
good if not better than breast
milk. But the problem is that
many families in these countries
lack the resources to prepare
these formulas safely — they
lack clean water to mix with the
powdered formula, they have
no place to sterilize bottles, and

Harry

Rankin

they have too low an income to
buy enough formula and so they
over-dilute it. The result is
widespread malnutrition and all
too often death.

Nestle’s aggressive promo-
tion and sale of its infant for-
mulas are in direct violation of
the United Nations’ World
Health Organization as well as
the International Code of
Marketing of Breast-milk
substitutes. Its unethical and
misleading practices have been
condemned throughout the
world. Yet it refuses to change.
Instead it launched a series of
‘‘dirty tricks’’ reminiscent of the
Nixon administration, aimed at
discrediting those who protest
its harmful practises. That is
why the world-wide boycott of
Nestle’s is growing throughout
the world, including Canada,
and has the backing of an im-
pressive list of churches, citizen .
groups, ethnic organizations,
health organizations, unions,

Nestle feels heat

‘ council which last summer pass-

boycott

writers and women’s groups. In
Canada the boycott is led by the
Infant Formula Action Coali-
tion (INFACT).

The boycott has also received
the endorsation of Toronto city

ed the following resolution:

““Whereas the aggressive
marketing of infant formula to
replace breast-feeding in many
underdeveloped countries has
led to tragic and avoidable mor-
tality, and;

Whereas the World Health
Organization has recommended
an international code of
marketing practices, regarding
the marketing of milk powder
for infants, and;

Whereas the Canadian
government has called for an
end to the distribution of free
samples of infant formula in
Canadian hospitals, and;
‘‘Whereas Nestle’s, the world’s
leading seller of baby formula in

doctors, developing countries,
cannot be bound by this code,
and has not complied with
previous United Nations mar-
keting codes; |

Therefore be it resolved that
city council endorses the
boycott of Nestle’s is complying
fully with the World Health
Organization marketing prac-
tices and that city council en-
dorse a policy of requesting all
lessees of retain outlets on city-
owned property refrain from
the selling or advertising of Nes-
tle’s products.’’

This resolution was also in-
troduced into Vancouver city
council’s community services
committee, of which I am chair-
man. Alderman Nathan Divin-
sky didn’t want a vote to be
taken before supporters of Nes-
tle’s have a chance to present
their case. That’s fine with me.

Nestle’s has been invited to
present its side of the case to the
committee — don’t hold your
breath waiting for it to happen.

COPE parks commissioners Pat
Wilson and Libby Davies will be
pressing to keep the price down on
city swimming pools andicerinksin
what has become an annual battle
with the NPA members of the Van-
couver parks board.

Both Wilson and Davies in-
troduced motions Monday calling
for 1982 fees to be held at the 1981
level and for holders of Phar-
macare and welfare cards to be
allowed free admission to parks
board facilities.

The motions were put off till a °

subsequent meeting, however.

Delegations from several
groups, ranging from the Down-
town Eastside Residents Associa-
tion to the Community Alterna-
tives, appeared before the board to
voice their opposition to the pro-

- posed increases which would push

fees up 15 to 20 percent.
The increases would only impose

Parks fee hikes resisted

another hardship on low and mid-
dle income people, they said. And
many would be forced to give up
using the facilities entirely.

Wilson made that same point to
the Tribune Tuesday, emphasizing
that people ‘‘can only use recrea-
tional facilities depending on their
ability to pay.

“Tf they can’t afford to pay, then
they can’t use them — and our
facilities become more and more
elitist, available only to those with
good incomes,” she said.

But in addition, raising the fees
doesn’t make economic sense, she
said. Because the increases force
many people to stop using the
facilities entirely, the volume of
users declines and the extra revenue
that increased fees is supposed to
generate doesn’t come in.

“Tf we had lower fees, we’d have
more people,”’ she said.

Even if the parks board does

realize its estimated $550,000
tional revenue, she noted,, that
still less than the deficitforthe Val
Dusen Gardens which ‘10!
$600,000. ‘

COPE commissioners have ult
ed that the current $2 entrance ff
for the facility, which is us?
predominantly by tourists, be ra?
ed to $5, thus enabling the board
gain some revenue without havill
to raise fees for facilities used by¢
ty residents. a

Wilson also noted that the
creases sought by the NDP over tit
last four years have surpassed evé!
the current high rate of inflation,
She cited the case of the you!
swimming fee which, if the new
crease went into effect, would
risen from 65 cents to $1.10 si

: “That’s a 69 percent incr
compared to 26.9 percent ine
over the same period,”’ she sal

ve Sun columnist, Denny Boyd, is still
trying to figure out why the Robbie Burns Night
dinner, as announced in the Tribune, is being held
this Sunday, Jan. 23, in the Russian People’s Home.
A little reflection on the availability of halls in the
Downtown Eastside area and an expansion of his
reading might enlighten him.

In his own day, Burns rejected and excoriated the
Establishment whose modern counterparts occupy
so much of Boyd’s own column. That Establish-
ment has long since sought to claim Burns for its
own, refashioning ‘‘man’s inhumanity to man’’ to
its concepts, but rarely quoting the work which
reveals Burns’ revolutionary ideas — the ideas for
which he is honored by progressive people around
the world.

It might interest Boyd to know that the Soviet
writer Samuel Marshak is regarded has having been
the greatest of all translators of Burns. Those who
can read his work in Russian claim that it has cap-
tured the idiom so well you can savor the heather.

* * *

lish seamen who were led to believe they would

be welcomed with open arms when they jumped

ship in Vancouver are getting their first taste of “‘free
enterprise”’ and finding that it’s bitter.

Back in Poland, they were paid while they trained
for skilled trades and they were assured of jobs.
Even when they went on strike, whatever their
grievances, in the upheaval that wrought havoc with
the economy, they still received their full wages.

Here, as they are learning, it’s different, very dif-
ferent. They have to vie for jobs with some 100,000
unemployed at a time when the economy is depress-
ed. They are being told that this country anticipates a
shortage of skilled workers, but they find that major
industries are laying off their own skilled workers.

The only work they have been offered so far is
distributing flyers at $3.65 an hour — and the offer
reportedly was cut to $2.50 when the prospective
employer found they didn’t have the language.
Welcome to‘‘free enterprise.’’

A few have been given union cards, but as one
young seaman said through an interpreter in a televi-
sion interview, ‘‘I got my union card four days ago
and I can’t understand why I haven’t been called to
-work yet.’’

He will, as he learns the language and begins to
talk to other workers.

Pa}
ea

wrt House aides have problems enough cover- :
ing for president Ronald Reagan’s politically in- |

discreet remarks, but there’s little they can do about |

statements already on the records.

It was embarrassing when the Professional Air |
‘Traffic Controllers Association, after he fired all |

those of its members who refused to break their own |
strike, dug up the ingratiating letter he wrote to |.
secure its support in the 1980 presidential campaign. |

Now his earlier book, Where’s the Rest of Me?, |
which was reprinted last year, reveals his noble senti- i

ment on page 138:

“J was then and I continue to be a strong believer |

in the rights of unions, as well as in the rights of in- ;
dividuals. I think we have the right as free men to —
refuse to work for just grievances. the strike is an‘in-
alienable weapon of any citizen.’’ Oh'yeah!

* * *

ada Cars of Canada Inc., the Conminnownes :

company which imports the Soviet Lada, has —
just introduced its new dual gasoline-propane
model, the first such mass production car in this —
country.

The new model, which is expected to go on sale
around the end of next. month, allows drivers to
switch from one fuel to another while the car is being
operated. Fuel savings, according to national

marketing director John Wright, will range from 20 ©

to 50 percent, depending on the cost of propane.
Price of the new model is $5, 996.

ee * * *

t the Vancouver Labor Council’s meeting this
week, when delegates were discussing the plight ©

of senior citizens facing big tax increases, it occurr

to us how few people know of the provision allowing |

people over. 65 to defer. their municipal taxes.
There’s a catch to it, of course. The taxes stand as an

|

mene eer

accumulated debt against the home, to be paid with |

accrued interest eventually — either the heirs pay the
debt or the home must be sold to satisfy it.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 22, 1982—Page 2